Pursuing excellence through music as a family.

Today BCW girl's softball played against Hudsonville High School and after 12 innings and 4 hours of being tied at 2-2 we lost on base hit with bases loaded, 3-2. Hudsonville's all star pitcher was about 6'1'', is a sophomore and already has a full ride to U of M for softball. Her massive size didn't intimidate Western's smallest player. Karrie Jaynes (5'0'') lead the offense with 4 hits!

Both the Bay City Western Baseball team and Softball teams have won the regional championship. They are both scheduled to compete in the State quarterfinals on Tuesday at CMU. The Baseball game is at 10:00 am and the Softball game is at 1:00 pm.

Good news! Some very generous students spent some time looking through the uniforms that were returned and found a few more pieces that I had announced were missing!

Below is a final list of all missing uniform pieces as of Thursday, June 4 at 3:00 pm. If your name is listed please look to find your uniform pieces and return them. If you name is not listed, please look and see if you might have one of these at home! Please return all uniform pieces on Sunday!

I am so excited to share with you a new program in our community to support music in our schools. In an effort to promote increased opportunity, and encourage greater participation in music, DStreet is promoting a new program called “Bandwagon”.

This program will aim to provide access to musical instruments and/ or equipment by utilizing donated property from present and former musicians. Think of it as a sort of “instrument library” for musicians. I would like to invite you and your students to help us, help you.

Read the rest - they're looking for some musicians for the Loons game on June 7.

We will accept as many as six (6) students and two (2) adult additions to the Spring Break 2010 Band trip to Disney. Applications will be accepted beginning Tuesday, May 26, 2010 at 7:20 AM on a first come-first serve basis. When the limits have been reached, we will not accept additional applications. We may put interested parties on a waiting list after the limit is reached.

Did you not get to see Celebration 2009? Did your Grandma in Mississippi not make it to the show? Well they can watch it on the internet at ustream.tv. Once there, you will notice that you can watch either act from all three nights. Enjoy!

I have scheduled the annual practices and audition times for Drumline, Guard and Drum Major on our calendar. All current 8th - 11th grade students interested in participating in any of these parts of the band should plan to attend as many of the practices as possible and also be sure to attend the audition.

Well, here it is! The new Site design is finally up and running. There are still a few kinks to work out here and there, but most things should be at least as good as they were and some areas are even better!

You'll notice a few changes:

- new drop-down login box

- new Private message system with new notification in header

- new ability to share stories on facebook, myspace, etc

- new "look" (skin/theme/etc)

plus some other things I can't think of right now.

If you notice a problem with anything, feel free to leave a comment on this story and I'll see what I can do.

FYI - I'm aware of the photo album problems...

UPDATE 4/15: I have fixed the photo album problem and also the avatar problem in the forum.

I also added the ability to choose your own avatar and upload your own if you wish - check your account page...

Congratulations to all the students that participated in MSBOA's State Solo and Ensemble Festival in Okemos on Saturday, March 28, 2009. I'm sorry that I was unable to watch your performances (I was stuck in the office all day!). From the results, it is obvious that all of you performed wonderfully and represented Western most excellently! I have your rating sheets and will hand them out at school after break. See below for complete results.

Special congratulations to Alison Phelps for being nominated to the Michigan Youth Arts Festival as a soloist. More information on this below.

UPDATE: In addition to the information above, Alison Phelps has been nominated to the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Honors Band! You can read the Post at MSBOA.org for all the information. Congrats to Alison!

Right - we got hacked a couple days ago. The site was a complete mess. I'm sorry if you had to see that. Then of course, I had to take it down while I was attempting to fix it - so maybe you saw some of that too. What fun. So, I worked with our website host (jaguarpc.com, btw) and they restored the site to a backup -so, it is possible that we lost a few forum posts or something - maybe. Of course, that service they provide isn't free... Now, I have taken a few measures to counter the hacker, but I can't promise anything. You only become a hacker if you're really smart - and really bored. Obviously, this particular hacker was REALLY bored so they picked a very minor little site in our corner of the internets. Hey! Leave us alone! what did we ever do to you? huh? If we figure out who you are, we're going to come to your house and make the drumline wake you up at 4:00 am! Or worse, we'll ask the oboe section (yes I said SECTION - all SIX of them!) come to your house and attempt to play a unison! take that! we can fight fire with fire! (hmmm, speaking of fire... you know why a bassoon is better than an oboe?)

So, this little episode has only made me want to upgrade the site even more than before, so expect to see something new soon. Ironically, I had already been working on the upgrade plan and was hoping to get the largest chunk of work done over spring break. So, in a way, the timing couldn't be better. :-)

There will be two meetings held on Monday, March23, 2009. The first begins a 6:30 and should last about 45 minutes. The meeting is geared toward all parents of current eight grade band students. We will be presenting information about High School Band and answering questions you may have about band camp, the Band trip to Disney in 2010 and any other questions you may have.

At 7:30 for about 30 minutes we will be discussion the impact of Trimester scheduling on Band and looking at how you can help your student prepare for their future and still enjoy the benefits of being in the band program. This meeting is open to all current and future band parents.

The High School Band will be marching in the Annual Bay City St. Patrick's Day Parade this Sunday, March 22. Students should arrive in uniform with raincoats at the Temple Israel on the corner of Center and Green at 1:15 PM. The parade begins at 2:00 PM. The WHS Band will be #28 in the parade (which is the first band!). Hopefully this means that we will be finishing the parade around 3:00 PM. Parents must pick up their students at the end of the parade. The parade ends at the corner of Water and Center, but it is recommended that parents arrange to meet their students a few blocks from there as traffic is thick at that point. The Band Trailer will be available at the end of the parade to take only percussion equipment and sousaphones. All other students should plan to take their instrument home.

The band room will be open from noon to 12:15 pm on Sunday for anyyone who forgot their instrument. don't be late. Also - despite the weather, we will be marching unless they cancel the whole parade (which never happens). Bring your raincoat! You can wear anything you like under your uniform to keep warm - just as long as we can not see it!

We'll be playing the Fight Song and also Thriller Beginning at measure 9.

The MSBOA High School State Solo and Ensemble Festival Schedule is posted below. The festival will take place at Okemos High School on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Students are responsible for their own transportation. Proficiency soloists should see THIS website for proficiency information. Remember that Proficiency II includes all the proficiency I scales, etc. See Mr. heydenburg if you have questions!

Congratulations to all the band students of Bay City Western High School and Middle School for their terrific performances at MSBOA District 5 Band & Orchestra Festival on March 6 & 7, 2009. The Seventh Grade Band, under the direction of Heidi Schlosser & Alex Benoit, earned an overall Division II rating. The Eighth Grade Band, also under the direction of Ms. Schlosser, Earned straight Division I ratings (that means all judges gave them a Division I).

Both the High School Concert Band and Symphonic Band, under the direction of Craig Heydenburg, earned straight Division I ratings for the fifth consecutive year. Since 2001, the High School Bands have earned Division I ratings every year except in 2003.

Well, I spent a bunch of money to "upgrade" the software that I use to podcast our rehearsals and so now of course IT DOESN'T WORK.... In the meantime, I created a directory that you can open and download mp3 files of the rehearsals. >>mp3 directory<<

The previous podcasts are still right where they used to be and functional.

Celebration tryouts will be ONE DAY ONLY this year, due to Mrs. Keenan's afternoon elementary teaching schedule. Start gearing up for TUESDAY MARCH 24! Tryouts will begin at 1:30 and will go until about 3 or 4:00. There will be a sign-up sheet in the office 2 weeks before the tryouts. Students will be able to sign-up for a speciific 5 minute time slot. We are looking for "performance ready" vocals, instrumentals, dances, magic acts, comedians, skits, etc. Start planning now....Spring will be here before you know it!

Congratulations to all the students that participated in Solo & Ensemble Festival on Saturday, February 21. Weather-wise it was a cold and blustery day, but the students from Bay City Western were a ray of sunshine as 13 of the 16 events earned division one ratings. (click below to see all the ratings). The other three events earned a division two rating. All in all a truly successful day - in spite of the weather!

Events that earned a division 1 rating are eligible to participate at the state-level solo & ensemble competition on March 28, 2009 at Okemos High School. Please note that this date is the first weekend of Spring Break and that the location is different than it has been in the last several years. Students that wish to attend must register before the end of the week (before 2/27). Freshman Solos are $15, Proficiency Solos are $21, Duets $16, Trios $18, Quartets $20, Sextet $24, Chamber $50. Proficiency Solos require scales and sight reading. See Mr. H for more information.

High Sschool students, please take some time to listen to the recent podcasts. I forgot to hit record in the Concert band rehearsal on Thursday but I did post some recordings for you, plus there is last week's rehearsal you can still listen to. Symphonic Band, there is a couple things there for you today. Enjoy.

Former band student Kelly Ambrose has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Kelly is currently a student at Cornerstone University and is ungoing treatment for a large tumor. You can read more about Kelly's situation in this Bay City Time's article. Kelly's family is holding a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to cover the costs of her treatment.

At the BCPS Board of Education meeting on Monday, February 9, 2009 the Board approved purchase of new Marching Band Uniforms for both Western and Central High School Bands. Sample uniforms were displayed and several member of the board asked questions of the band directors present before approving the purchase. While the uniforms may not be exactly as the samples, the final uniforms will be very similar to those presented.

The last time Bay City purchased new marching uniforms was 11 years ago, at that time there was no replacement plan in place and the cost took the district by surprise. Fortunately there was money available then. The district then put a plan in place so that money would be available when the time came to purchase new uniforms again. The District has been setting aside $10,000 per year from the general fund in order to save for band uniforms. The School District has shown tremendous fiscal responsibility in saving general fund money for the purchase of band uniforms on a cyclical basis. Since the implementation of a band uniform savings account the district has also begun similar savings for other replacement needs, two examples being textbooks and furniture.

We are very fortunate to have a school board and administration that support the music program and our needs. I look forward to an exciting marching season this fall showcasing our new uniforms. Click below to view a picture of the sample uniforms.

Seniors, how would you like to be awarded a $2,000 Bay Commitment Scholarship? This scholarship is available through the Bay Area Community Foundation (BACF) and is available to 2009 graduating seniors from Bay City Public Schools who meet the following criteria:

♦ Student has attended BCPS six or more full years

♦ Neither parent/guardian has earned a four‐year college degree

Students awarded this scholarship must use the funds at Delta College or Saginaw Valley State University. The Bay Commitment application must be accompanied by an essay and two recommendation letters. To apply for the scholarship, visit bayfoundation.org for complete

On Tuesday 2/3 and Wednesday 2/4 I gave presentations to the High School bands about High School Graduation Requirements and Trimester Scheduling. A document summarizing the grad requirements is here and the sample schedules are here. Eventually the entire presentation will be posted online, but not in the immediate future due to technical hurdles.